Dynamically managing a system of servers

ABSTRACT

A method and system manage a plurality of servers coupled to a network. Each of the servers is identified by a server name. At least one of the servers is identified by an old server name. The method notifies at least some of the plurality of servers that at a specified time the old server name will be changed to a new server name.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of managing systems of servers, such as server farms, and more particularly to a method of and system for dynamically removing, replacing or upgrading servers in a system of servers.

2. Description of the Related Art

As interactive voice response (IVR) products mature from a traditional client/server environment to a more Web-centric architecture, an increasing number of service providers resort to having a managed data center provide IVR services. Managing a Web-based IVR farm of servers includes managing IVR servers, Web servers, and speech recognition servers. As part of management, administrators typically have to upgrade hardware. Examples of such hardware upgrades include adding dialogic cards, adding more disk space, and adding more memory. These changes are generally not dynamic, and removing a server from a network and adding a new one is not an automated process. Removing a server from a network or adding a new one requires careful timing and planning.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and a system for managing a plurality of servers coupled to a network. Each of the servers is identified by a server name. At least one of the servers is identified by an old server name. The method of the present invention notifies at least some of the plurality of servers that at a specified time the old server name will be changed to a new server name. In some embodiments of the present invention, the new server name may be the name of one of the plurality of servers already connected to the network. In other embodiments, the new server name may be the name of a new server added to the network.

The system according to the present invention includes an administration server coupled to the network and administration clients installed on the plurality of servers. The administration server is configured to broadcast on the network update messages. An update message includes the old server name, the new server name, and the specified time at which the old server name will be changed to the new server name. Each of the plurality of servers includes a local configuration that identifies the servers with which the particular server communicates. When an administration client receives an update message, the administration client determines if the local configuration of the server upon which the client is installed includes the old server name. If so, the administration client initiates a change of the old server name to the new server name in the local configuration file at the specified time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further purposes and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an interactive voice response (IVR) platform according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a message packet according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of server name change processing according to an embodiment of the present invention; and,

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an IVR platform before a first implementation of server update according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the IVR platform of FIG. 4 after server update according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an IVR platform before a second implementation of server update according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the IVR platform of FIG. 6 after server update according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an information handling system adapted to embody systems and methods according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings, and first to FIG. 1, a system according to the present invention is designated generally by the numeral 100. In the illustrated embodiment, system 100 is a Web-based interactive voice response (IVR) server farm. System 100 includes a plurality of servers coupled to a network 101. Network 101 may be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, or any other network. The servers of system 100 include a plurality of speech recognition servers 103, a plurality of Web servers 105, and a plurality of IVR servers 107. As is known to those skilled in the art, the various servers cooperate with each other to perform automated interactive voice response services.

System 100 includes an administration server 109 coupled to network 101. As will be explained in detail hereinafter, administration server 109 is programmed according to embodiments of the present invention to facilitate dynamically removing, replacing, or upgrading the servers of system 100. According to the present invention, each server 103-107 includes an administration client 111. Each administration client 111 is programmed according to embodiments of the present invention to process and act on update messages from administration server 109.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an update message package 201 according to the present invention. Update message packet includes a header 203, which contains control information. The body portion 205 of update message packet is segregated by ServerType. ServerType may have values like IVR, WEB, and RECO. Different servers 103-107 of system 100 are consumers of different services. For example, IVR servers 107 may be consumers of services provided by speech recognition servers 103 and Web servers 105. However, speech recognition servers 103 are not consumers of the services provided by Web servers 105. Also, the system of servers may be configured such that certain IVR servers are consumers of services provided by some Web servers or speech recognition servers, but not others. Service type enables an administration client 111 to determine whether it needs to be concerned with server name changes for particular servers. Within each server type of update message packet 201 there is listed the servers of that type that will be removed, replaced, or upgraded. According to an embodiment of a messaging protocol according to the present invention, the server to be taken out of service is identified as OldHostName. The server that will replace OldHostName is identified as NewHostName. The time at which the change will occur is identified as NewHostAvailableTime.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an embodiment of administration client processing according to the present invention. The administration client receives a packet, at block 301. The administration client parses the packet and determines, at decision block 303, if there are any more ServerTypes. If not, as indicated at block 305 and at decision block 307, the administration client determines, for the first or next ServerType in the packet if the server upon which it is installed is a consumer of services provided by that ServerType. If not, processing returns to decision block 303. If, as determined at decision block 307, the server is a consumer of services provided by that ServerType, the administration client determines for the first or next server within that ServerType if the OldHostName is in the local configuration of the server upon which it is installed, as indicated at block 309 and decision block 311. If so, the administration client schedules a local configuration update for the server upon which is installed to change OldHostName to NewHostName at the NewHostAvailableTime, as indicated at block 313. If, as determined at decision block 315, there are more servers within the ServerType, processing returns to block 309. If not, processing returns to decision block 303. Processing continues according to FIG. 3 until there are no more ServerTypes. At the NewHostAvailableTime scheduled, the administration client changes the OldHostName to the NewHostName in the local configuration of the server upon which is installed. Thereafter, whenever the server requires services that it would have received from the OldHostName it will receive the services of the NewHostName.

FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 illustrate an example of the operation of the present invention in which one server will be replaced by an existing server. In FIGS. 4 and 5, speech recognition servers 103, IVR servers 107, Web servers 105, and administration server 109 are all networked together. However, the actual communication channels between servers 103-107 within the network are indicated by solid lines. Thus, IVR server 107 a communicate with speech recognition servers 103 a and 103 b, but not with speech recognition servers 103 c-103 f. Similarly, Web server 105 a communicates with IVR servers 107 a-107 c, but not with IVR servers 107 d-107 f. Administration server 109 communicates with each server 103-107. However, lines indicating communication channels have been omitted for the sake of clarity.

In the example of FIGS. 4 and 5, administration server 109 would broadcast an update message packet including, in addition to a header, the following information.

<ServerType_WEB>   <OldHostName>105b<OldHostName>   <OldHostName>105a<OldHostName>   <NewHostAvailableTime>TS<NewHostAvailableTime> <ServerType_WEB> Since IVR servers 107 d-107 f communicate with Web server 105 b, the administration clients installed on those WR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105 b to hostname 105 a at time TS. At time TS, the system of servers would assume the configuration shown in FIG. 5. Thereafter, old Web server 105 could be taken off the network.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrate an example of the operation of the present invention in which Web servers 105 a and 105 b are replaced by new Web servers 105 c and 105 d, respectively, which were not previously part of the system of servers 103-107. In the example of FIGS. 6 and 7, administration server 109 would broadcast an update message packet including, in addition to a header, the following information.

<ServerType_WEB>   <OldHostName>105a<OldHostName>   <OldHostName>105c<OldHostName>   <NewHostAvailableTime>TS<NewHostAvailableTime>   <OldHostName>105b<OldHostName>   <OldHostName>105d<OldHostName>   <NewHostAvailableTime>TS<NewHostAvailableTime> <ServerType_WEB> Since IVR servers 107 a-107 c communicate with old Web server 105 a, the administration clients installed on those IVR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105 c to hostname 105 c at time TS. Similarly, since IVR servers 107 d-107 f communicate with old Web server 105 b, the administration clients installed on those IVR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105 b to hostname 105 d at time TS. Prior to time TS, new Web servers 105 c and 105 d would be connected to the network. At time TS, the system of servers would assume the configuration shown in FIG. 7. Thereafter, old Web server 105 b is could be taken off the network.

Referring now to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a block diagram of a generic information handling system 800 capable of performing the server and client operations described herein. Computer system 800 includes processor 801 which is coupled to host bus 803. Processor 801 preferably includes an onboard cache memory. A level two (L2) cache memory 805 is also coupled to host bus 803. A Host-to-PCI bridge 807 is coupled to host bus 803. Host-to-PCI bridge 807, which is coupled to main memory 809, includes its own cache memory and main memory control functions. Host-to-PCI bridge 807 provides bus control to handle transfers among a PCI bus 811, processor 801, L2 cache 805, main memory 809, and host bus 803. PCI bus 811 provides an interface for a variety of devices including, for example, a local area network (LAN) card 813, a PCI-to-ISA bridge 815, which provides bus control to handle transfers between PCI bus 811 and an ISA bus 817, a universal serial bus (USB) 819, and an IDE device 821. PCI-to-ISA bridge 815 also includes onboard power management functionality. PCI-to-ISA bridge 815 can include other functional elements not shown, such as a real-time clock (RTC), DMA control, interrupt support, and system management bus support.

Peripheral devices and input/output (I/O) devices can be attached to various interfaces or ports coupled to ISA bus 817. Such interfaces or ports may include a parallel port 823, a serial port 825, an infrared (IR) interface 827, a keyboard interface 829, a mouse interface 831, and a hard disk drive (HDD) 833.

A BIOS 835 is coupled to ISA bus 817. BIOS 835 incorporates the necessary processor executable code for a variety of low-level system functions and system boot functions. BIOS 835 can be stored in any computer readable medium, including magnetic storage media, optical storage media, flash memory, random access memory, read only memory, and communications media conveying signals encoding the instructions (e.g., signals from a network). In order to couple computer system 800 to another computer system to copy files or send and receive messages over a network, LAN card 813 may be coupled to PCI bus 811. Similarly, a Fibre Channel card may be coupled to PCI bus 813. Additionally, a modem 839 may be coupled to ISA bus 817 through serial port 825 to support dial-up connections.

While the computer system described in FIG. 8 is capable of executing the invention described herein, the illustrated system is simply one example of a computer system. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that many other computer system designs are capable of performing the invention described herein.

One of the preferred implementations of the invention is an application, namely, a set of instructions (program code) in a code module that may, for example, be in the random access memory of the computer. Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, on a hard disk drive, or in removable storage such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network. Thus, the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product for use in a computer. In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that systems and methods according to the present invention are well adapted to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art. While the present invention has been described with reference to presently preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art, given the benefit of the foregoing description, will recognize alternative embodiments. Accordingly, the foregoing description is intended for purposes of illustration and not of limitation. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of managing a plurality of hardware servers coupled to a network, said method comprising: receiving, by a first server, an update message specifying a plurality of servers to be updated in accordance with an update at corresponding specified times, the update message identifying a server type of each of the plurality of servers, wherein, for each specified server, the update message identifies a corresponding old server name of the specified server prior to the update and a corresponding new server name of the specified server after the update; identifying, by the first server, a first plurality of servers of the plurality of servers based on the first server being a consumer of services provided by a server type corresponding to each server of the first plurality of servers; determining, by the first server from the first plurality of servers, a second plurality of servers that have a corresponding old server name within a local configuration of the first server; for each of the second plurality of servers, scheduling, by the first server, local configuration changes to update the corresponding old server names with corresponding new server names at the corresponding specified times; responsive to removing old servers of the second plurality of servers and replacing the removed old servers with corresponding new servers, replacing, by the first server and based on the scheduled local configuration changes, each corresponding old server name with corresponding new server names; notifying at least some of a plurality of servers that an old server name will be changed to a new server name at a specified time in the future; wherein each of said plurality of servers are identified by a respective server name, and one of said servers is identified by the old server name; and wherein at least one of the plurality of servers responds to receipt of a notification of the change in server name by autonomously replacing the old server name, at the specified time, with the new server name in a local configuration listing the names of other servers with which the at least one server communicates.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of one server of said plurality of servers.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of a new server added to said network.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 3, said method further comprising: adding said new server to said network before said one specified time of said corresponding specified times.
 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, said method further comprising: removing said old server of said network after said one specified time of said corresponding specified times.
 6. A computer system, comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a computer readable hardware storage device coupled to the processor, said storage device containing program code executable by the processor via the memory to implement a method of managing a plurality of servers coupled to a network, said method comprising: receiving, by a first server, an update message specifying a plurality of servers to be updated in accordance with an update at corresponding specified times, the update message identifying a server type of each specified server of the plurality of servers, wherein, for each specified server, the update message identifies a corresponding old server name of the specified server prior to the update and a corresponding new server name of the specified server after the update; identifying, by the first server, a first plurality of servers of the plurality of servers based on the first server being a consumer of services provided by a server type corresponding to each specified server of the first plurality of servers; determining, by the first server from the first plurality of servers, a second plurality of servers that have a corresponding old server name within a local configuration of the first server; for each server of the second plurality of servers, scheduling, by the first server, local configuration changes to update the corresponding old server names with corresponding new server names at the corresponding specified times; and responsive to removing old servers of the second plurality of servers and replacing the removed old servers with corresponding new servers replacing, by the first server and based on the scheduled local configuration changes, each corresponding old server name with corresponding new server names.
 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of one server of said plurality of servers.
 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of a new server added to said network.
 9. The method as claimed in claim 3, said method further comprising: adding said new server to said network before one specified time of said corresponding specified times.
 10. The method as claimed in claim 1, said method further comprising: removing said old server of said network after one specified time of said corresponding specified times.
 11. An article of manufacture, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code executable by a processor of a computer system to implement a method of managing a plurality of servers coupled to a network, said method comprising: receiving, by a first server, an update message specifying a plurality of servers to be updated in accordance with an update at corresponding specified times, the update message identifying a server type of each specified server of the plurality of servers, wherein, for each specified server, the update message identifies a corresponding old server name of the specified server prior to the update and a corresponding new server name of the specified server after the update; identifying, by the first server, a first plurality of servers of the plurality of servers based on the first server being a consumer of services provided by a server type corresponding to each specified server of the first plurality of servers; determining, by the first server from the first plurality of servers, a second plurality of servers that have a corresponding old server name within a local configuration of the first server; for each server of the second plurality of servers, scheduling, by the first server, local configuration changes to update the corresponding old server names with corresponding new server names at the corresponding specified times; and responsive to removing old servers of the second plurality of servers and replacing the removed old servers with corresponding new servers replacing, by the first server and based on the scheduled local configuration changes, each corresponding old server name with corresponding new server names.
 12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of one server of said plurality of servers.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: one new server name of the corresponding new server names is a name of a new server added to said network.
 14. The method as claimed in claim 3, said method further comprising: adding said new server to said network before one specified time of said corresponding specified times.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 1, said method further comprising: removing said old server of said network after one specified time of said corresponding specified times. 